07/16/12- - Thought Crime

By Brian Judge, Prisontv.net: Held without charge at the Metro West detention centre for 16 days, prisontv.net colleague Ricky Atkinson has been sent to a Kingston area prison to await a parole hearing.

Rick earned full parole in January 2011 and returned to Toronto last fall. His girlfriend, Angela Casey, says she’s been told by officials that Rick displayed a “deteriorating attitude”.

In a Facebook posting Angela stated:

“A voice from Atkinson Co-op aka Richard Atkinson...has now been sent to Kingston to await a hearing with Parole Board so they can finish the arguments as to who he can or cannot speak to. Please tell me how the system can silence someone who is making positive changes for our youth and for his work in the Atkinson Co-op to eradicate guns & gangs - in the very community named after his father, Sonny Atkinson?”

~Angela Casey

Angela makes a good point about Rick’s portfolio of work since returning to the GTA. He became a regular media contributor with appearances on CBC’s Connect with Mark Kelly. He’s a sought after crime and punishment analyst and blogs at prisontv.net.

“I’ve spent more time in prison than most correctional staff will in a career, an important goal of mine is to educate Canadians about the prison system and its costs – both human and financial.”

~Richard Atkinson

Rick recently promoted and staged a successful ‘Fight for Life’ Muay Thai boxing demonstration and was able to make a kind donation to Mount Sinai hospital. Between odd jobs, boxing lessons and speaking engagements, he has turned the page on his criminal past. Supporters of Rick Atkinson are dismayed that his parole has been suspended. They suggest that officials are trying to silence a high profile voice using nonsensical, double speak language citing the use of the term “deteriorating attitude”.

Further, they say he has already earned the trust of the National Parole board and has lived an exemplary life since being granted a full parole last year. His supporters feel that this costly, slapping of the wrists is a case of over reach and ultimately serves no corrective purpose.

As Rick Atkinson said in his last blog posting before being detained June 29, 2012:

“Every two weeks I must listen to a government official, whose job is to find criminal intent in everything I do, so that she can lock me up. Since I have elected not to commit crime any more she has turned her job description into questioning my innocence which she will never believe exists. How frustrating it is to offer proof that is never accepted, over and over and over again.”